In a dithered Ring Laser Gyroscope (RLG) a small fluctuation, referred to as a single beam signal (SBS), will appear on a laser intensity monitor (LIM) observing either the clockwise (CW) or counter-clockwise (CCW) beams. This fluctuation appears at the “zero rate” of the RLG. As this fluctuation may upset the Path Length Control (PLC) subsystem of the RLG it is desirable to take the PLC subsystem offline during these disturbances.
In prior approaches, hardware circuits are used to synchronize to the dither motion and create a blanking pulse that suspends operation of the PLC circuitry during the SBS event. The blanking pulses are timed to occur at the peaks (presumably zero rate) of the dither angle (DPO). For low rates of inertial motion this method is adequate. However, for higher rates of several degrees per second or more, the effective position of the zero rate changes relative to the dither angle. This renders a statically positioned system inadequate as the blanking pulse will occur at the wrong time.